Source: A husband’s agony as Mujuru family buries wife and five children – herald
Arron Nyamayaro
WHEN Lilian Mujuru and her five children left the family home in Tynwald North, Harare, for a church conference on Thursday, as the nation prepared to commemorate the Easter holidays, her husband expected her to call announcing they had arrived safely.
But, alas, fate took a cruel twist.
That call never came.
Instead, Ronald Mujuru received the kind of news that no parent should ever hear — that his wife, Lilian (40), and their five children — Nokutenda (15), Makanaka (13), Ronald Junior (11), Rufaro Shalom (7) and little Kayden (3) — had been killed instantly in a head-on collision along Masvingo Road, near Mvuma.
Six lives. One family. Erased in a single, sickening moment.
Yesterday, at a funeral parlour in Harare, Ronald sat before five white coffins. Around him, mourners wept. But his tears had already been exhausted.
What remained was a hollow, trembling voice that broke the silence of that sombre hall.
“I am yet to understand this loss,” he said, sobbing.
“It is like life in prison. This will affect me until my own death.”
A nation’s grief
Among those who came to pay respects was Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Dr Felix Mhona.
The minister, known for his measured public demeanour, could not hold back.
As he stood before the coffins, tears streamed down his face — a raw, unguarded moment that captured the nation’s grief.
Dr Mhona revealed that President Mnangagwa had also been moved and deeply saddened by the tragedy, and had sent him to convey condolences on behalf of the President and his two deputies.
“We have been saddened by the loss of six lives from the same family in a road traffic accident,” the minister said, his voice cracking.
“This is so painful. We have lost as a nation. President Mnangagwa is aware of this incident and he has sent me to express his condolences.”
In a heart-wrenching display of love and loss, Ronald had printed family photographs showing his children laughing, posing for school portraits, celebrating birthdays.
He pinned them onto each coffin — a final gallery of lives cut short.
One image showed Nokutenda, the eldest, in her school uniform, smiling shyly.
Another captured Makanaka and Ronald Junior playing in the garden.
Rufaro Shalom, just seven, beamed next to a birthday cake.
And little Kayden, only three, clung to his mother’s hand.
Each photo carried a moving message.
Mourners — church members, teachers, classmates, soccer supporters who knew Ronald as a die-hard Dynamos FC fan, and even friends from his days as manager for musician Andy Muridzo — stood in stunned silence.
Some sobbed openly. Others simply stared, unable to process the sight of five small coffins and one larger one.
The family had been travelling to a church conference — a journey of faith and fellowship.
Instead, it became a journey of no return.
Near the 246-kilometre peg along the Harare-Masvingo Road, a Toyota Corolla carrying the Mujuru family collided head-on with a Mercedes Benz truck.
Police said all six died on the spot.
The Easter holidays, meant for celebration and remembrance of resurrection, will now forever be for the Mujuru family a season of burial and bitter goodbye.
Today, the bodies will be taken to Chivhu for interment.
‘Don’t post our dead on social media’
Amid the grief, Minister Mhona delivered a plea that resonated far beyond the funeral parlour.
He begged Zimbabweans to stop filming and photographing accident victims for social media.
“I urge the people of Zimbabwe to value our culture and tradition . . . by not posting videos and photographs of accident victims on social media,” he said.
“Let us consider how such videos affect relatives of the victims and the general public.”
He reminded the nation that in Zimbabwean culture, death messages are delivered with care and dignity.
“That is why you see the police first find the next of kin before informing the public,” he said.
As mourners gathered at the family home in Tynwald North yesterday evening, preparing for the journey to Chivhu today, Ronald Mujuru was clearly overcome with grief.
Behind him is a national that is also commiserating with him.
In a statement announcing the tragedy on Thursday, Zimbabwe Republic Police Commissioner Paul Nyathi urged drivers to exercise caution on the roads.
“We appeal to drivers to seriously consider road safety while moving on the country’s roads this Easter and Independence holidays,” he said.
COMMENTS